Popular Misconceptions about Soma:

The total number of mantra-verses dedicated to Soma is about 1200; this number includes all the mantras in the Mandala 9 with 114 Sūktās or 1108 verses. To understand the nature and function of Soma, one has to study all these 1200 mantras in some detail.

The scholars in the past have taken short cuts in this study. There is a creeper by the name of Somalata which was used in the rituals of the Vedic age called as yadnya. Specifically, the Soma creeper was crushed and its juice, after purification, was offered to the fire in the altar.

Commentators such as Sāyaṇa or Mahidhara, proponents of the rituals,

identify Soma occurring in the Rig Veda mantras almost exclusively with the Soma-juice obtained from the creeper. The Western Indologists also regard Soma as the juice from the creeper; in most places they regard it as an intoxicant like liquor. But a straight-forward reading of the epithets to Soma in most of the mantrās gives a picture which is radically

different from that of the juice of the creeper.

In several mantras, Soma is associated with the word 'mada' which means intoxication, joy or exaltation. Hence it is said that Soma juice is an intoxicating liquor. Further these translators and commentators claim that the phrase, 'drinking Soma, Indra kills Vṛtra', implies that Indra becomes inebriated with the drink of Soma and in that state of

intoxication, he kills Vṛtra. These Indologists completely ignore the hundreds of epithets to Indra which state that Indra is not a human being, but a cosmic power. Indra does not need any liquids to be blissful. Being joyful is his natural state.

The Soma plant was natural to Vedic India as mentioned in ancient books detailing the plants and their properties. As Sri Kapāli Sāstry observes, "Soma plant is an extinct species and it was not easily available even thirty centuries ago. Twentyfour varieties of Soma plant are mentioned along with the places of their growth and their therapeutic virtues such as strength and longevity in the classical book of Ayurvedic herbs entitled, "Shushruta Samhita" in its chapter 29 having the title 'chikitsa-sthana', but its intoxicating property is never mentioned."

Let us begin with what the Rig Veda mantra (10.85.3) has to say regarding whether the Soma is a herb or not.

सोमं॑ मन्यते पपि॒वान्यत्स॑म्पिं॒षन्त्योष॑धिम् ।

सोमं॒ यं ब्र॒ह्माणो॑ वि॒दुर्न तस्या॑श्नाति॒ कश्च॒न ॥ १०.०८५.०३

soma̍ṃ manyate papi̱vānyatsa̍mpi̱ṃṣantyoṣa̍dhim .

soma̱ṃ yaṃ bra̱hmāṇo̍ vi̱durna tasyā̍śnāti̱ kaśca̱na .. (10.85.3)

"Laymen or ritualists may regard Soma as a creeper to be crushed for getting its juice for use in the ritual. But no one ever tastes him whom the Brahmans know to be Soma" (10.85.3).

Rig Veda states that the Soma in the shrutis is the Delight of Existence and not just the intoxicating juice of a plant.

🙏 Somam dhaarayati 🙏

🙏 Namo Narasiṁha 🙏